Local positivity rate begins to drop

The rate of COVID-19 tests coming back with a positive result is slowly dropping in Crook County, which is good news for Crook County Memorial Hospital. Last week, according to Micki Lyons, CEO, the positivity rate had decreased to 17% from a significantly higher 38% just the week before.

“It’s slowing down – slowly,” she said. “It’s still much higher than we would like.”

The threshold at which requirements change for such things as testing in a long-term care facility is 10%, according to Lyons. When the positivity rate drops below that level, Crook County Medical Services District will start looking at opening up visitation again in the LTC and the main hospital.

“We’ve still been busy in the ER and hospital,” Lyons said, with the number of patients with COVID-19 within the hospital staying pretty consistently between two and four over the last month.

Meanwhile, “Currently, Crook County is at a 21.4% vaccination, which is still the lowest in the state.”

However, she said, it’s a much different scenario within the hospital than a month ago, when the most recent wave of infections first sent the facility into near-crisis mode.

Meanwhile, said Lyons, 66 people made use of the drive-up tests that have been made available at all three clinics in the county over the last month.

“Lots of people are utilizing that service,” she said, commenting that the community is clearly finding it useful.

Visitation is, of course, still closed while the positivity rate still remains above the 10% threshold.

“We’re just hoping that continues to go down,” Lyons said.

Across Wyoming, hospitalizations are staying relatively steady around the 200 mark.

However, the local surge showed signs of ramping back up on Monday as five people were recorded as hospitalized here, the highest number of COVID-19 patients on a single day in Crook County throughout the pandemic.

Case numbers in Crook County continue to rise. Over the last week, the Wyoming Department of Health has recorded 20 new lab confirmed instances of COVID-19 within the county and 17 new probable cases.

Local Death

Another death in Crook County was announced last week, bringing the total lost to COVID-19 here to 17. The older man was hospitalized and had health conditions known to put people at higher risk of severe illness.

The death was among another 41 announced last week by the Wyoming Department of Health, bringing the overall total in this state to 996.

As well as the Crook County man, COVID-19 claimed six people from Laramie County, five from Park County, four each from Natrona, Fremont and Platte counties, three people from Campbell County, two from Big Horn, Uinta, Sweetwater and Albany counties and one each from Carbon, Converse, Goshen, Niobrara, Sheridan and Teton counties.

Once again, the number of younger, healthier individuals who were reported to have succumbed to the virus was higher than earlier in the pandemic.

Of the 41 who died, just under half were under the age of 65 (a total of 20) and 16 were not known to have health conditions that would have put them at higher risk of serious illness. Only three were long-term care residents.

Risk to Pregnant Women

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued an urgent advisory last week for pregnant women, those who have recently been pregnant and those who might become pregnant in the future. With only 31% of pregnant people currently vaccinated against COVID-19, the CDC is urging these women to consider getting a vaccination.

According to the CDC, current data suggests that pregnant women who develop a symptomatic case of COVID-19 have a 70% increased risk of death.

COVID-19 during pregnancy is also believed to increase the risk of adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, including preterm birth, stillbirth and admission of the baby into an intensive care unit.

“The CDC health advisory strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because the benefits of vaccination for both pregnant persons and their fetus or infant outweigh known or potential risks,” states the CDC press release.

Nationwide, of the more than 125,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in pregnant people by September 27, more than 22,000 were hospitalized and 161 died. The CDC says 22 of those deaths occurred in August alone.